Monthly Archives: July 2015

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I started last quarter with 30 items on my list. I finished 9 of them. (Woo hoo!) Then I added a few... okay, more than a few. My list is now longer than last quarter. Yikes! A few more swaps were added to the queue (I'm on a break for signing up for swaps for now... er, I just signed up for one more) and the kids just helped pick out fabric for some new clothes. I think July and August might be slow going for finishes, but once the end of August hits and the kids are both in school again, I should be able to knock off a bunch of these. Remember, my 2015 goal was to cut the WIP list in half (it started at 24). I sure have my work cut out for me! I'd like to get 12-15 of these done this quarter, including some larger finishes (as last quarter most of my finishes were mini quilts).

The WIPs (roughly in priority order)

  1. The Purple Ninja Quilt. Quilt top complete, backing and label made, and handed off to long arm quilter.
  2. 2004 (ugh) Baseball Quilt... it's really time to dust this one off and get my oldest WIP off the list! My July goal is to finish making the blocks so I can reassess the design of the overall project. Eight blocks down, a bunch more to go.
  3. Little Letters in Blues/Greens Quilt. I finished cutting all the sashing and have high hopes of finishing this in the next couple days. I'm thinking that's actually pretty unrealistic though.
  4. Halloween Mini Swap. Due late August. Still formulating a final plan. Here are some of my top contenders from my stash.
  5. Text Me Mini Swap. Due late August. Big plans for a texty, rainbow Dresden plate.
  6. Home Sweet Home Swap. Still need to finalize my plan. Due early September.
  7. Dumpling Pouch Swap, cut out and ready to sew. Due early October.
  8. Sew My Stash Mini Quilt Swap. The new one. Partners will be assigned soon. Due early October.
  9. Very Hungry Caterpillar twin quilt. Fabric all cut for Fat Quarter Fizz quilt.
  10. Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt. I cut all the fabric I had and had way too many sets for the twin quilt for my son's bed, so I should be able to get 1 or 2 baby quilts out of the remaining pieces. See above.
  11. Hawaiian lap quilt. Again, I'm using the Fat Quarter Fizz pattern.
  12. My safari animal baby quilt. Ready to baste and quilt. I'm considering going with graffiti quilting on this one.
  13. Ocean quilt for The Girl (top pieced, but needs applique done)
  14. Little Letters in Brights Quilt.
  15. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) Quilt (I have a HST plan... with these 5" squares)
  16. Batik SCVQA philanthropy quilt. Basted and ready to quilt.
  17. Roman Stripez with butterfly backing. Some blocks done. (see #18)
  18. Roman Stripez with turtle backing.
  19. Memory House Vol. 1 Quilt (2 houses complete)
  20. Pirate Quilt (pre-cut fabric selected)
  21. Leah Day's Building Blocks Quilt Along (first 3 sets of blocks done)
  22. Envelope quilt. A couple blocks pieced. I'll probably make a mini for myself.
  23. Monster Quilt (first applique block in progress)
  24. Christmas Mini Quilt (using 4 orphan blocks I somehow acquired)
  25. Swoon Quilt (first two blocks cut out)
  26. Primary mini quilt. Same pattern as my Cotton & Steel mini swap. Hoping to get better at adding those bias edge triangles to finish it.
  27. Frog dress for my daughter. She picked out this fabric while on the Shop Hop with me. I intend to make my first Nelle Dress (by Brownie Goose).
  28. Frog shirt for my son. His pick on the shop hop. Not sure what was with the frogs. He'd like a new Bowling Shirt (pattern by Scientific Seamstress).
  29. Baseball dress for my daughter. Ever since my son started playing t-ball, she's had a thing for baseball. She spotted this baseball fabric on the shop hop. I'm planning to make the Jewel's Stripwork Peasant Dress (by Create Kids Couture) without using strips for the skirt. She's been wearing the last one I made her for a year.
  30. Baseball print Bowling Shirt for my son.
  31. Winnie the Pooh Skirt/Shorts for my daughter.
  32. Rainbow Simply Woven lap quilt with bee blocks from Stash Bee. So far I've received 4 blocks in the mail, plus my first block. Aren't they fun!?
  33. 4th of July shop hop table runner. Low priority at this point since it's July 14th now. ;-)
  34. Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt. Here's my latest batch of new fabric from the Intrepid Thread block of the month.
  35. Midnight Mystery Quilt. In progress, expected finish early 2016.

 

Bucket List (I haven't pulled fabric for these, but I can't stop thinking about them. However, I have no business starting more new projects! Edited to add even more!)

  1. Triangle Squared quilt.
  2. Equilateral triangle quilt, perhaps Chopsticks pattern.
  3. Raspberry Kiss lap quilt.
  4. Helping my son with his next project. He doesn't currently have a plan, so it's not on the official WIP list, but he's mentioned a number of ideas.
  5. Floating Squares improv score from The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.
  6. Technicolor Galaxy. I didn't have the bandwidth to do it real time, but every time I see everyone else's I kick myself just a little bit for not diving in.
  7. Polaroid quilt.

I'm linking up to the Q3 Finish Along Goal Party.

2015 FAL at On the Windy Side

Things I Make

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They were all completed and mailed on time, but I'm finally showing you my April, May and June bee blocks.

April

Stash Bee: We made these adorable paper pieced cranes for Liz in April. She was looking for blues and teals, but open to other colors, so I made two. It was a quick and easy block to put together.

do. Good Stitches: In April, Diane had us make these simple spool and square blocks in this great color scheme: apple red, dark navy, cream + rain (grayish-blue-greens). I really liked the randomness generated by having each block be any combination of spools and plain squares. Here are my three blocks.

The Bee Hive: We made bright and funky Tic Tac Toe blocks for Nicole. We had also made this block in February. It goes together very quickly and I find it easy to be very precise with matching the seams. It was really fun to choose some loud fabrics.

Nicole has put together her (soon to be queen size with a border) quilt top with blocks from the bee and about 14 blocks that she made herself. Isn't it so fabulous!?

Nicole's Scrappy Happy X's
Scrappy Happy X's by Nicole (@saphre1964 on IG)
Nicole's Scrappy Happy X's 2
Scrappy Happy X's by Nicole (@saphre1964 on IG)

May

Stash Bee: In May, Hive 1 made Kaleidescope blocks in yellow, lime green, dark teal, red-orange and light lilac for Jackie. I had a great time pulling these fun colors and digging into my low-volume stash. Jackie gave us the option of making a positive or negative block. I decided to make one of each.

do. Good Stitches: We made some large scrappy flying geese. The geese measure 4.5" by 8.5" (unfinished). Ailish asked us to use mostly lime, avocado, bright green -- with some turquoise/aqua - on a scrappy gray background. Here's what I came up with for my blocks.

The Bee Hive: In May we made the double star block. Lisa provided us some Essex linen, so there would be some commonality throughout the blocks. This was my first time working with the Essex linen and I think it got me past my fear of cutting into the yardage for my Patchwork City project. She had admired the green print in my block for Nicole the previous month, so I used it again for her block.

June

Stash Bee: In June we made this Loopy block for Leo. She was great with her specifics of what she wanted and didn't want for fabrics. The size of the block surprised me when I started cutting fabric. I knew it was 16", but 16" is big. I really like the graphic, geometric pattern and look forward to seeing how Leo sets the blocks.

The Bee Hive: For June, we made Wanta Fanta block. I had a great time putting this together, because I used 34 different fabrics in this 12" block. Kylie didn't want blenders (which is the majority of my stash), so I had to rifle through my scrap bin to find stuff to use. Overall, I was pleased with how this came together. I could totally see using the pattern in the future. I love the illusion of curves it creates when many blocks are put together (and you get a little distance from it).

July

This month I'm the Queen for Hive 1 of Stash Bee. I decided on this Simply Woven block with rainbow colored strips. I'm so excited for the scrappy quilt that will result. And excited to have some fun mail coming my way. My first package has already arrived. :-) Here's my sample block:

Thanks for visiting!

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In 2004, I "gave" my brother a "quilt" for Christmas. It was a work in progress and I really had the best of intentions of finishing it up and handing over the finished quilt shortly thereafter. Here's what it looks like today:

There are 8 completed blocks.

Here's the day I gave it to him:

baseball quilt

Not such impressive progress in 10 1/2 years, huh?

I must say, I'm much more excited about working on a number of other projects I currently have going. But, my goodness, they are snowball blocks! They shouldn't take long. However, I think once I get going on this project I'm going to have to rework the overall plan for it since my brother is now 6'5". So this month's goal is to finish piecing these blocks. There. I've put it out there. Now I'm accountable to all of you. Here's to making progress this month and turning it into a Q3 finish!

Anyone else working on an embarrassingly old WIP?

Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes July Goal Post.